Saturday Morning's Forgotten Heroes: The Gumfighter (1979)

 Wrigley's decided on a different approach when they introduced Hubba Bubba bubble gum in 1979. In order to hook the kids, they needed a heroic character, since the commercials would air smack dab in the middle of network programming, which, at the time, had its fair share of superheroes (i.e. Super Friends, Spider-Woman).

Enter The Gumfighter (Don Collier) in a series of commercials parodying old school Westerns. Western vet Dub Taylor is the Geezer, and would later join the cast of Hee Haw.

Len Lesser, later of Seinfeld & Everybody Loves Raymond for contemporary viewers, but a well traveled character actor, like Taylor, plays the villain here.

Wrigley's discontinued this series after about a year or two, and later would merge with M & M Mars, which also had a heroic commercial pitchman during the 70's, Marathon John (Patrick Wayne).